Hamilton Beach Indoor Searing Grill with Hot/Cold Smoke Infuser Review

First Impressions of the Hamilton Beach 25375

Nothing screws together, but there is more setup here than a plain indoor grill asks for. The fan drops into the base. The chamber goes in over it.

Then a small mesh screen, a screen support, a large mesh screen. Close the infuser lid and twist the chamber until it locks. The grill plate goes in next, the gasket into the rim, the drip tray underneath.

Last comes the wire rack, on two supports above the plate ribs. Five minutes, the first time.

The body is low and wide and looks more serious than the price suggests. The cover lifts off its hinge completely. One long bar, mounted high on it, is the handle.

Controls are split between two surfaces. One knob on the front face, marked OFF at one end and Sear at the other. A rocker switch with a fan symbol sits up on the top panel, beside the chamber.

Red lamp for power, green for ready. That is the whole instrument set.

First cook was steak, hot smoked, then seared. Three lightings in, the kitchen smelled like a smokehouse. The meat carried it gently, right through, in a way no bottled sauce manages.

Key Features of the Hamilton Beach 25375

Everything unusual here follows from one decision. A smoke chamber was fitted inside the body of an ordinary searing grill. The rack, the gasket, the vent and the fan all exist to serve it.

• A chamber you light by hand. Load up to 1 teaspoon of finely shredded wood, about 5 grams. Hold a flame to it until it smolders. The chamber contains; the fire is yours.
• A fan that runs for seconds. Switch it on before you light, off once the infuser lid is shut. Hamilton Beach is explicit: never run the fan once the grill has filled.
• Two smoking methods. Hot smoking sets the knob to 350°F and works by indirect heat. Cold smoking uses no heat at all, for cheese, nuts and hard eggs.
• Adjustable-height cooking grates. The wire rack sits up for smoking, so smoke reaches both faces of the food. Slide it down with mitts to grill, without lifting anything off it.
• A removable cover with a vent. Keep the vent closed while smoking. Open it, at least partly, while grilling, so moisture can leave.
• A gasket around the rim. It seals cover to base. A twisted gasket is the manual’s first suspect when smoke escapes.
• A SEAR setting at 450°F. Three of the five hot-smoke foods in the maker’s chart finish there. The chart also uses 350°F and 375°F for gentler work.
• Fuel bought separately. Wood shreds are not supplied, and pellets are specifically ruled out. Fruit wood is mild, hickory and pecan medium, mesquite strong.

One absence is worth naming. Hamilton Beach never says how low the knob will go on this model. The guide names three settings and then stops, so the bottom is anyone’s guess.

Heat and cooking performance

Grilling on this is straightforward and genuinely good. There are 1,200 watts behind 116 square inches, which is a healthy ratio. Turn the knob to Sear, wait for the green lamp, cook.

Smoking needs more care in the description. Hot smoking runs the knob at 350°F with the rack raised. But that knob reads the grill plate.

Hamilton Beach states it plainly. Air inside the closed cover sits significantly lower than the setting. Your food is up on the rack, in that cooler air.

So the 15 minutes of hot infusing is a gentle stage, not a cook. That is precisely why the chart sends you back down to Sear afterwards. Smoke first, crust second, and the rack is how you move between them.

One more thing that sequence buys you. Food never has to be picked up and carried between the two stages. The rack takes it down to the plate.

Cold smoking is the more interesting half. No heat, two to four lightings, and cheese comes out properly smoked. Doing that in a kitchen, in February, is not a small trick.

Build, handling and durability

For this money the hardware is better than it needs to be. The cover comes clean off its hinge. The gasket is a working seal rather than trim. The chamber is machined and knurled and handles like a tool.

The plate is ceramic nonstick. The parts list says so; the sales page only says nonstick.

It sits flat and low and does not rock when you press a chop down. That matters more than it sounds, because the cover invites you to lean on it.

One warning before you measure a cupboard. The product page gives 6.8 inches high, 16.7 wide, 12.4 deep. Hamilton Beach’s own dimension artwork prints 7.7 by 17.5 by 12.3.

All three figures disagree, and neither source looks more authoritative. Plan the space around the larger set.

Running costs, upkeep and value

Electricity barely registers. The consumable that matters is wood, measured in teaspoons, and a hot-smoked steak wants three. Buy shreds rather than chips, because the chamber is built around the fine stuff.

You also need a lighter permanently within reach. Small thing, but it becomes a habit or it becomes an obstacle.

Cleaning divides sharply. Grill plate, cover, gasket, wire rack and drip tray are all dishwasher safe. Rack, gasket and tray go on the top shelf, and the sanitize cycle is forbidden.

That half is exactly as easy as advertised. The infuser half is not. Those parts are hand wash only, being small enough to lose down a drain.

The manual suggests a paper clip for pushing the small screen out. The same trick hooks the fan free. Every so often those parts want twenty minutes soaking in rubbing alcohol.

There is a price gap worth knowing about. Direct from the maker it is $164.99, with shipping free past $50. We captured it at around $138.94 on Amazon in September.

At the lower figure the exchange is fair. Hamilton Beach sold the sealing, the fan and the rack, then left you the fire. You get a capable indoor searing grill and smoke hardware that works. You also get a job to do, every time you use it.

Possible Hamilton Beach 25375 Complaints

• The headline feature is manual, and it repeats. A hot-smoked steak means three loadings and three lightings, five minutes apart. Nothing automates that, and cooks hoping to press a button will notice at once. Know it beforehand and the chore becomes a method rather than a surprise.
• The warranty excludes the parts this design eats. The term runs one year in the US and five in Canada. Filters are named as an exclusion, and the mesh screens are those filters. They take residue every session, so two spares of each size ship in the box.